


A Garden to Tend

by Thunderrrstruck



Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: (acute and longterm depending on character), Breaking down, F/M, Iron Man 3, PTSD, Scene Fix-It, Self-Loathing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-15
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:06:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27024754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thunderrrstruck/pseuds/Thunderrrstruck
Summary: As Pepper closed her eyes and rolled onto her side, the couch’s leather sticking at any exposed skin, something prevented her from falling into a blissful slumber. She replayed the scene from half an hour ago in her head. Over and over again, she relived how she headed for the door – how shewalked straight out!– without so much as a bat of an eyelid for the breaking man.
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Comments: 4
Kudos: 16
Collections: Whumptober





	A Garden to Tend

**Author's Note:**

> Written for day 12 of Whumptober2020. Prompt: Broken Down. Title inspired by Jack Johnson's "Home" – add that to your Pepperony playlists, I dare you!
> 
> I wrote this to remedy THAT scene in Ironman3. Pepper's not just gonna walk out on a struggling Tony! Over my dead body.

Shock. It had been shock. Right? That was all, that would justify her actions. As Pepper closed her eyes and rolled onto her side, the couch’s leather sticking at any exposed skin, something prevented her from falling into a blissful slumber. She replayed the scene from half an hour ago in her head. Over and over again, she relived how she headed for the door – _she walked straight out!_ – without so much as a bat of an eyelid at the breaking man.

_If I’d just paused_ , danced the ‘what if’ in front of her mind’s eye.

Tony had been silently struggling for half a year. He had just admitted it to her earlier that yea. But when she saw, firsthand, the effects of the trauma, she bailed! What kind of person did that make her?

_You don’t deserve to sleep_.

If Tony couldn’t, why should she?

She shoved herself to stand. Without ado, Pepper followed her conscience to the master bedroom. Up the stairs, through the hall, she pressed her palm into the door and watched the floor as a line of gold grew into a slab, a chunk, and finally flooded the hallway.

“Tony?” she spoke into the light. It took her a few seconds to spot the brown hair spiking above the other end of the bed. Armour parts littered mostly the floor while a few had caught themselves on the king-sized mattress. More insistent, rushing to her boyfriend, she repeated, “Tony! Hey..”

When she laid a hand on his shoulder, his head shifted over, yet his eyes were barely connecting with hers.

_He’s scared_. It hit her as suddenly and forcibly as a bullet train. Several red-hot needles seemed to poke incessantly at her heart. _Because of me._

“Thought you were sleeping downstairs,” he said, a little degree of himself still kicking within, but Pepper's ears picked up on the hints of self-loathing instead. Pepper collapsed onto the carpet beside him and trailed a hand along his arm until she found his hand.

“That was stupid,” she said. “If wasn't you fault. I shouldn't have left.”

“It’s okay.” His voice was so small, so decidedly un-Tony-like, that she had to wonder just how deep the anxiety ran within and how far back it stemmed. Trauma was ugly, everyone would say, but not many – including her – could say they’ve seen that ugliness firsthand. Once, she might have thought she’d recognise it, that is if it ever crossed with her simple, unassuming lifeline. After all, she considered herself more perceptive than most, more understanding, and more patient. How wrong she had been! It cost Tony his sense of security. If she hadn’t caught it that night, it might have cost them their relationship. She shivered at the thought. Loving Tony was one of the easiest things she’d ever done, through the thick and the thin. Surprising, perhaps, but she could not deny how well he fit into her life; if she believed in soulmates, she might say that was what they were.

“It’s not!” insisted Pepper. “That was a very bitchy move! Leaving you like that."

"It's cool," he said so simply.

"No, Tony–"

"I get it. You need space, too."

"Will you just–?"

"Hey, I'm being self aware, here!"

"Will you just let me apologise?!"

Pepper felt something squeeze her hand. She looked down to see his hand securing their entwined fingers.

“Don’t go breaking down on me, Potts,” Tony quipped, to which she hung her head and chuckled. “I still need you.”

“And I, you,” she said. In her periphery, she caught his gaze. Propelled by a sudden, red desire, she reached her neck towards him and pressed a kiss to his temple. Afterwards, she dropped her head to his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Tony."

Pepper just barely heard a ‘thank you’ in reply – so quiet, it could have been the wind.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Leave a review?


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